As emerging markets’ growth has slowed, many consumer companies have started to look back to developed economies for growth. The U.S. is a particular bright spot: Consumers, who drive three-quarters of output in the U.S., have continued to deliver as labor markets have steadily improved over the past several years.

Some global business leaders have questioned whether the promise of consumers in emerging markets to fuel growth was overstated in the first place and if, now, multinationals who invested heavily in their promise should pull back.

Multinationals should not turn their backs on emerging market consumers. Some rebalancing toward developed markets makes sense in the near term as their relative strength improves, but it must not come entirely at the expense of investment in emerging markets. For the foreseeable future, emerging markets will provide the fastest growth opportunity for global consumer-facing companies. There are many consumers in emerging markets who are both able and willing to spend a good part of their disposable income, and the size of that cohort (and its income) is going to continue to grow at a robust pace.

The expressed willingness of consumers to spend is an important but often overlooked element of market attractiveness. Nielsen measures this openness through its Global Survey, now fielded quarterly in 64 markets.

Openness to spending is not driven primarily by affluence. There are plenty of low-income consumers in all these markets who say they have spare cash after spending on the bare essentials. So much so that, in the Nielsen Global Online Survey for the third quarter of 2015, nearly 90% of consumers in the survey say they have cash to spare for nonessentials – and many are not affluent by any measure. More importantly for multinationals reconsidering their investments, eight of the top 10 markets by share of consumers who feel they have spare cash are Asian emerging markets. Developed economies are as represented in the bottom half as the top. Italy and Finland are in the bottom 10. Some consumers in markets with low income are on the whole readier to spend than consumers in many markets with a high average income. (The U.S. comes in slightly below the global average, at 87%.)

It’s important to understand that the spending power of emerging market consumers for nonessentials will rise significantly over time. Still, the survey makes it clear that there is no linear relationship between a country’s income and its share of consumers who feel they have spare cash. In other words, just because a country’s consumers have more spending power than those in another country does not mean they will feel they have more choices than consumers in the other, poorer country. Consider China and the U.S. In China, only 3% of consumers with Internet access believe they do not have any spare cash. Even among lower-income Chinese consumers surveyed — those on annual incomes below $5,000 — just 9% felt like they had no spare cash. In the US, on the other hand, a much richer country, the share is 13% — both overall and when looking just at middle-income consumers. Clearly, having cash to spare is relative.

The survey is limited by the fact that it is conducted online, but that is less of a limitation every quarter. Internet access is growing everywhere. In China, for example, Internet access is currently just about 50%, but The Demand Institute projects that this share will grow to 75% by 2025. If historical trends in Internet access are any indicator of what is to come, it will continue to rise significantly in emerging markets generally over the next decade.

This is particularly important, because Internet access is also a fundamental driver of engagement in the consumer economy around the world; it makes spending so much easier and more exciting. Consumers getting online are like babies learning to walk: They discover a whole new world with which to engage. Suddenly, they can learn about, participate in, and buy a much wider range of brands and products. They become part of an ecosystem that includes not merely e-commerce, but also online payments, social media, location services, shopping tools, and the websites of the producers and retailers for these goods and services. Consumers in many emerging markets are leapfrogging traditional offline advertising and shopping channels to engage with brands and products on digital platforms – increasingly through mobile devices. These consumers are engaged with digital platforms in ways that go far beyond those in developed markets. The lines between consumers’ experiences of retail, media and entertainment, and financial services are blurring.

For instance, the intensity of direct engagement between brands and consumers that happens regularly via social media in emerging markets goes significantly beyond what happens in developed markets – today, at least. And much of that happens via mobile devices. As a result, companies cannot simply do in emerging markets what they have done in developed markets to engage with consumers. New models must be embraced that recognize that people in emerging markets act more and differently online – models that may ultimately drive changes in developed markets also.

Indeed, investing in developing markets may not just be about pursuing growth. It may be about learning how to compete back home, too.

Top 10 Markets: Share Who Feel They Have Spare Cash

Country

Share who feel they have spare cash (among those with internet access)

GDP per capita (2013)

China

97%

$3,580

India

97%

$1,160

Indonesia

97%

$1,810

Hong Kong

96%

$33,500

Philippines

96%

$1,580

Thailand

96%

$3,440

Vietnam

96%

$1,030

Japan

93%

$37,400

Singapore

93%

$36,900

Norway

92%

$65,200

Source: Nielsen

Bottom 10 Markets: Share Who Feel They Have Spare Cash

Country

Share who feel they have spare cash (among those with internet access)